“Israeli missiles target Gaza” | Al-Jazeera
December 27, 2008 12 Comments
At least 30 missiles were fired at targets on Saturday, with the head of emergency services in Gaza saying that at least 200 people were also wounded.
The Hamas-run interior ministry said all security compounds in Gaza have been destroyed.
Hours after the Israeli strikes Gaza fighters fired rockets into southern Israel, heeding to calls by Hamas and other affiliated Palestinian groups to avenge the attacks, unprecedented in their scale.At least one Israeli was killed in the rocket fire, Israeli medics said.
Among those killed in Israel’s massive offensive was Tawfiq Jabber, the Gaza police chief.
Islam Shahwan, a Hamas police spokesman, said the missiles hit a police graduation ceremony in Gaza City.
Hat-tip to Black Looks via Twitter.
Related update: The Israelis are nothing if not considerate before a strike.
Update: Huffington Post reports the attacks have left over 200 dead and 400 wounded. Also check out “The Hospitals in Gaza City Cannot Hold.” Way to go fighting that terrorism, Israel. Good results you’ve got going there. Oops, wait, treating injured civilians is drawing up sympathy for terrorists! Can’t have that, now can we? Hat-tip to BFP via Twitter.
About problem chylde
Not enough palis killed in my opinion. They want Israel just to sit by and do nothing? International law only works if it is followed by both sides and clearly Hamas does not think it applies to them. IN the end you get what you give. And where does Hamas think they have a position of strength to DEMAND anything. They will be peeing in their pants begging Israel to spare the last remaining few of them.
It’s hard to trust reports made by Hamas officials… they wish to portray a picture by which most of the casualties are civilians, while in reality Israel is doing its best to hit only Hamas militants.
Hamas on the other hand is firing rockets indiscriminately towards Israeli towns.
Israel has every right to defend its citizens from the Hamas use of terror.
Not enough “palis” killed? Glad to hear from the racist sociopath contingent so early in the morning.
Oh Bq, this is a fight against terror, all Palestinians look and think the same, murder is the only answer, etc. etc. This is not the time for reasonable discourse! Colin says kill!!!
David Green, thanks for commenting. I’m a little skeptical that these reports are being used by Hamas to dredge up sympathy. However the grand total of casualties I’ve seen reported so far on each side of the conflict is Palestine – at least 155 dead, Israel – one dead. The fact anyone has died is a tragedy but I’m skeptical that only the militants compose the 155 number.
I think no one should compete who has the higher death toll. Every human being is preciouse and I resent any comment saying that there should be more casualties on either sides.
And still, Israel is doing its best to hit only Hamas militants eventhough they are using civilians as their human shields. Look at the videos on CNN – you see them firing Kassam rockets from within dense civilian populations because they know that Israel would hesitate to fire back. This is a cowardly act.
At the same time they fire to Israeli towns without caring if it will hit a school, a kindergarden and so on.
I challenge you to show me where I said there should be more deaths. My comment pointed out the response appears out of proportion. Nor did I dismiss the tragedy of the situation. Please don’t construct straw men to attack.
I was referring to Colin’s remarks. Though I agree with her analysis.
Out of proportion?? I am sick and tired of hearing this crap. If you don’t want your people to die, don’t do things to cause it. Hamas thought they could get away with condoning and planning the missile attacks and they guessed wrong. They thought that they could hide their launchers in the midst of the civilians and get away with that too, and they guessed wrong. If you want to start a fight, be prepared to get the response.
Still no one wants to answer the question as to where all the world financial aid went to. Seems to me that billions of dollars could and should have gone to building the country they want instead of buying more weapons. Ask the other arab countries why they do not welcome the palestinians in. Its because they dont want them because they are trouble makers. Deny it all you want…the truth hurts, but it is true.
Well next time the need arises for a place to build a new country, I’ll recommend putting it in place right in your backyard in Canada and see how well and peaceful that works out for you.
You knwo what you don’t have top ublish this if you don’t want but striaght up
IF you don’t want to hear it COlin
GET THE FUCK ON
I am tired of this bullshit of well well tehy started it
We’re talking about peopel fucking dying and you want to talk about right to defend and what arab countries should do?
You don’t care abot “pals” you made taht clear so now please
GEt the fuck on . THis is not the place
Sylvia-thank you for posting this. I am mourning. I am so angry. How long will we tolerate violent racist governments. How long will the United States fund this genocide. You are so brave and beautiful for even dealing with the comments of those genocidal people who want to bring the social and cultural attempt to wipe out a group of people even into this space.
I love you, sis. And this makes everything we do more urgent. We will create the world that we all deserve. We will.
Colin, you may notice your responses are not going through, and you insist that I’m ignoring your challenge to respond to your inquiries about a country truly working to establish itself as legitimate properly using monetary aid. For that, I grant you this anecdote:
During Hurricane Katrina here, in a well-established and wealthy country, while people were floating dead in flood waters and people were carrying out racist vigilantism, families were struggling to find new homes and reconstruct after the catastrophe, etc., our national government flatly rejected billions of dollars in monetary aid and relief assistance from foreign countries at a time where it was sorely needed. No one has consequently began launching rockets into our airspace after that haphazard dealing with a chaotic situation, nor is our nation’s recognition by other countries questioned on a geopolitical scale or on the level of international acceptance.
One of the virtues/vices of a people having autonomy over its conduct is taking responsibility and doing what it sees fit with its resources. I am not doing an endorsement of Hamas and its tactics by acknowledging that; nor am I endorsing the violence committed by them. If you dwell on that point, you’ve lost the plot. The response from Israel is grossly disproportionate to the conduct of Hamas, civilian targets were hit and there are dying Palestinians, there are limited medical resources, and the crisis is continuing out of a sick sadism than a measured response to terrorism.
Your comments have not gone through and will not go through if your fundamental premise is violence is warranted from either side. It’s not. That’s a note for you, Colin, as well as future commenters. I do not owe any further explanation than this (this is being gracious on my part as it is), and I will not continue to explain after this point.